Sunday, 9 December 2012

Kali is one of the many forms of Shakti. Maha Kaali is the fiercest of
all goddesses of Hinduism. The word Kali has its roots in the Sanskrit
word "Kaal", which means time. And nothing escapes from time.
Goddess Kali is sometimes referred as the goddess of death. But actually
Kali brings the death of the ego. Even in the scriptures, she has killed
demons but not anyone else. Kali is also not associated with Yama (the
Hindu God of Death). Kali is considered a form of mother too. Maa Kali
is one of the few Goddesses who are celibate and practice renunciation.

Goddess Kali and Lord Shiva, both are regarded to inhabit cremation
grounds. Devotees go to these places to meditate with the purpose of
overcoming the ego. The cremation grounds emphasize the idea that the
body is temporary. Kali and Shiva are known to stay in cremation grounds
because it is our attachment to the body that gives rise to the ego.
Kali and Shiva give the idea of liberation by dissolving the illusion of
the ego. The corporeal frame ultimately vanishes but the soul still
remains. This is emphasized by the scene in the cremation grounds.

Goddess Kali has four arms and hands depicting her immense strength. In
two of her hands, she holds a sword and a fresh severed head,
representing a great battle in which she defeated the demon Raktabija.
The other two hands are there to bless her true devotees, suggesting
that they will be saved as she will guide them here and in the
hereafter.

Kali is thought to have
originated as a tribal goddess indigenous to one of India's inaccessible
mountainous regions. The Matsyapurana gives her place of origin as
Mount Kalanjara in north central India, east of the Indus Valley
floodplain. But owing to the late date of the Puranas' composition, this
evidence regarding Kali's place of origin cannot be taken as
particularly reliable.

At least thousand years before the
Matsyapurana, the name of Kali first appears in Sanskrit literature
between the eighth and fifth centuries BCE. The reference, in
Mundakopanishad 1.2.4, names Kali as one of the seven quivering tongues
of the fire god Agni, whose flames devour sacrificial oblations and
transmit them to the gods. The verse characterizes Agni's seven tongues
as black, terrifying, swift as thought, intensely red, smoky colored,
sparkling, and radiant. Significantly, the first two adjectives -- kali
and karali -- "black" and "terrifying," recur in later texts to describe
the horrific aspect of the goddess. Karali additionally means "having a
gaping mouth and protruding teeth." This verse scarcely suffices to
confirm that Kali was a personified goddess during the age of the
Upanishads, but it is noteworthy that the adjective that became her name
was used to characterize an aspect of the fire god's power.

Kali
first appears unequivocally as a goddess in the Kathaka Grihyasutra, a
ritualistic text that names her in a list of Vedic deities to be invoked
with offerings of perfume during the marriage ceremony. Unfortunately,
the text reveals nothing more about her.

During the epic period,
some time after the fifth century BCE, Kali emerges better defined in an
episode of the Mahabharata. When the camp of the heroic Pandava
brothers is attacked one night by the sword-wielding Asvatthaman, his
deadly assault is seen as the work of "Kali of bloody mouth and eyes,
smeared with blood and adorned with garlands, her garment reddened, --
holding noose in hand -- binding men and horses and elephants with her
terrible snares of death" (Mahabharata 10.8.64-65). Although the passage
goes on to describe the slaughter as an act of human warfare, it makes
clear that the fierce goddess is ultimately the agent of death who
carries off those who are slain.

Kali next appears in the sacred
literature during the Puranic age, when new theistic devotional sects
displaced the older Brahmanical form of Hinduism. In the fourth and
fifth centuries CE the Puranas were written to glorify the great deities
Vishnu, Shiva and the Devi -- the Goddess -- as well as lesser gods.
One such Purana, the Markandeya, contains within it the foundational
text of all subsequent Hindu Goddess religion. This book within a book
is known as the Devimahatmya, the Shri Durga Saptashati, or the Chandi.

The
Devimahatmya's seventh chapter describes Kali springing forth from the
furrowed brow of the goddess Durga in order to slay the demons Chanda
and Munda. Here, Kali's horrific form has black, loosely hanging,
emaciated flesh that barely conceals her angular bones. Gleaming white
fangs protrude from her gaping, blood-stained mouth, framing her lolling
red tongue. Sunken, reddened eyes peer out from her black face. She is
clad in a tiger's skin and carries a khatvanga, a skull-topped staff
traditionally associated with tribal shamans and magicians. The
khatvanga is a clear reminder of Kali's origin among fierce, aboriginal
peoples. In the ensuing battle, much attention is placed on her gaping
mouth and gnashing teeth, which devour the demon hordes. At one point
Munda hurls thousands of discusses at her, but they enter her mouth "as
so many solar orbs vanishing into the denseness of a cloud"
(Devimahatmya 7.18). With its cosmic allusion, this passage reveals Kali
as the abstraction of primal energy and suggests the underlying
connection between the black goddess and Kala ('time'), an epithet of
Shiva. Kali is the inherent power of ever-turning time, the relentless
devourer that brings all created things to an end. Even the gods are
said to have their origin and dissolution in her.

The eighth
chapter of the Devimahatmya paints an even more gruesome portrait.
Having slain Chanda and Munda, Kali is now called Chamunda, and she
faces an infinitely more powerful adversary in the demon named
Raktabija. Whenever a drop of his blood falls to earth, an identical
demon springs up. When utter terror seizes the gods, Durga merely laughs
and instructs Kali to drink in the drops of blood. While Durga assaults
Raktabija so that his blood runs copiously, Kali avidly laps it up. The
demons who spring into being from the flow perish between her gnashing
teeth until Raktabija topples drained and lifeless to the ground.

Kali is a powerful and
complex goddess with multiple forms. In times of natural disaster she is
invoked as the protective Rakshakali. At the magnificent Dakshineswar
Temple in Calcutta, she is revered as the beautiful Bhavatarini,
Redeemer of the Universe. The Tantras mention over thirty forms of Kali.
The Divine Mother is also known as Kali-Ma, the Black Goddess, Maha
Kali, Nitya Kali, Smashana Kali, Raksha Kali, Shyama Kali, Kalikamata,
Bhadra Kali, Ugra Chandi, Bhima Chandi, Sidheshvari, Sheetla (the
goddess of smallpox) and Kalaratri. Maha Kali and Nitya Kali are
mentioned in the Tantra philosophy. When there were neither the
creation, nor the sun, the moon, the planets, and the earth, when the
darkness was enveloped in darkness, then the Mother, the Formless One,
Maha Kali, the Great Power, was one with the Maha Kala, the Absolute.
Shyama Kali
has a somewhat tender aspect and is worshipped in Hindu households. She
is the dispenser of boons and the dispeller of fear. People worship
Raksha Kali, the Protectress, in times of epidemic, famine, earthquake,
drought, and flood. Shamshan Kali (Shmashanakali)
is the embodiment of the power of destruction. From her mouth flows a
stream of blood, from her neck hangs a garland of human heads, and
around her waist is a girdle made of arms. She haunts the cremation
grounds in the company of howling jackals and terrifying female spirits.
Tantrics worship Siddha Kali to attain pefection. Phalaharini Kali to
destroy the results of their actions; Nitya Kali,
the eternal Kali, to take away their disease, grief, and suffering and
to give them perfection and illumination. She is also known as
Kalikamata ("black earth-mother") and Kalaratri ("black night"). Among
the Tamils she is known as Kottavei.
Kali is worshipped particularly in Bengal. Her best known temples are
in Dakshineshwar and Kalighat in Kolkata (Calcutta) and Kamakhya in
Assam.

Some early Buddhists identified Kalika with their Prajnaparamita,
the "Perfection of Wisdom", conceived of as a multi-armed
goddess/female wisdom energy. Buddhist tantrics viewed Prajnaparamita as
the original Buddha-consort, and over time, developed this vision
further. They viewed Her as the saviouress Tara, "the Compassionate
One", "She who helps the devotee overcome suffering". As the dark
four-armed Ugra Tara, with the dark blue Dhyani-Buddha Aksobhya on her
crown, she became "the Wrathful Saviouress", externally fierce to
ward-off enemies and unbelievers, but internally compassionate, the
"Embodiment of Compassion". Buddhists also knew the Dark Goddess as
Shyam (the "Dark One") and Kali. According to the noted Bengali
authority on Indian Buddhist Tantra, Dr Benoytosh Bhattacharyya, "Kali,
according to Buddhist tradition, is Kadi or Kakaradi, or, in other
words, all the consonants of the alphabet....all the consonants of the
(Sanskrit) alphabet are deified in her."

As Maha Kali (with form)
the Great Goddess is most commonly visualised as twenty-armed,
ten-faced, with three eyes on each face, her complexion dark and
shining. In this form she destroys the egoistic demons Madhu and
Kaitabha. This is a form which emanated out of the dark goddess Durga.
As Kala Ratri, tawny-eyed, cruel and fond of war, wearing tiger and
elephant skins, holding axe, noose, other weapons and a skull-bowl from
which she drinks blood, Kali is the "Night of Destruction" at the
termination of this world, the Female Spiritual Power always ready to
defeat the last demons, so none can pollute the next world. Forms of
Bhadra Kali have sixteen arms, eighteen arms or one hundred arms, all
giving protection to her devotees. Bhadra Kali is always visualised as
huge, wearing a three-pointed crown ornamented with the crescent moon, a
snake about her neck, her body draped in red and her mood jolly. She
pierces the body of a buffalo with her lance, one of her many weapons.
Hindu tantrics believe that in this form She pervades the whole
universe.

Some of the more striking similarities between Kali and Goddesses of other parts of the world are as follows:

We
find Kali in Mexico as an ancient Aztec Goddess of enormous stature.
Her name is Coatlicue, and her resemblance to the Hindu Kali is
striking. The colossal Aztec statue of Coatlicue fuses in one image the
dual functions of the earth, which both creates and destroys. In
different aspects she represents Coatlicue, "Lady Of the Skirt of
Serpents" or Goddess of the Serpent Petticoat"; Cihuacoatl, "the Serpent
Woman"; Tlazolteotl, "Goddess of Filth"; and Tonantzin, "Our Mother,"
who was later sanctified by the Catholic Church as the Virgin of
Guadalupe, the dark-faced Madonna, La Virgen Morena, la Virgen
Guadalupana, the patroness and protectress of New Spain; and who is
still the patroness of all Indian Mexico. In the statue her head is
severed from her body, and from the neck flow two streams of blood in
the shape of two serpents. She wears a skirt of serpents girdled by
another serpent as a belt. On her breast hangs a necklace of human
hearts and hands bearing a human skull as a pendant. Her hands and feet
are shaped like claws. From the bicephalous mass which takes the place
of the head and which represents Omeyocan, the topmost heaven, to the
world of the Dead extending below the feet, the statue embraces both
life and death. Squat and massive, the monumental twelve-ton sculpture
embodies pyramidal, cruciform, and human forms. As the art critic
Justino Fernandez writes in his often-quoted description, it represents
not a being but an idea, "the embodiment of the cosmic-dynamic power
which bestows life and which thrives on death in the struggle of
opposites."

We find Kali in ancient Crete as Rhea, the Aegean
Universal Mother or Great Goddess, who was worshipped in a vast area by
many peoples. Rhea was not restricted to the Aegean area. Among ancient
tribes of southern Russia she was Rha, the Red One, another version of
Kali as Mother Time clothed in her garment of blood when she devoured
all the gods, her offspring. The same Mother Time became the Celtic
Goddess Rhiannon, who also devoured her own children one by one. This
image of the cannibal mother was typical everywhere of the Goddess of
Time, who consumes what she brings forth; or as Earth, who does the
same. When Rhea was given a consort in Hellenic myth, he was called
Kronus or Chronos, "Father Time," who devoured his own children in
imitation of Rhea's earlier activity. He also castrated and killed his
own father, the Heaven-God Uranus; and he in turn was threatened by his
own son, Zeus. These myths reflect the primitive succession of sacred
kings castrated and killed by their supplanters. It was originally Rhea
Kronia, Mother Time, who wielded the castrating moon-sickle or scythe, a
Scythian weapon, the instrument with which the Heavenly Father was
"reaped." Rhea herself was the Grim Reaper.

We find Kali in
historic Europe. In Ireland, Kali appeared as Caillech or Cailleach, an
old Celtic name for the Great Goddess in her Destroyer aspect. Like
Kali, the Caillech was a black Mother who founded many races of people
and outlived many husbands. She was also a Creatress. She made the
world, building mountain ranges of stones that dropped from her apron.

Scotland
was once called Caledonia: the land give by Kali, or Cale, or the
Cailleach. "Scotland" came from Scotia, the same goddess, known to
Romans as a "dark Aphrodite"; to Celts as Scatha or Scyth; and to
Scandinavians as Skadi. Like the Hindus' destroying Kalika, the Caillech
was known as a spirit of disease. One manifestation of her was a
famous idol of carved and painted wood, kept by an old family in Country
Cork, and described as the Goddess of Smallpox. As diseased persons in
India sacrificed to the appropriate incarnation of the Kalika, so in
Ireland those afflicted by smallpox sacrificed sheep to this image. It
can hardly be doubted that Kalika and Caillech were the same word.
According to various interpretations, "caillech" meant either an old
woman, or a hag, or a nun, or a "veiled one." This last apparently
referred to the Goddess's most mysterious manifestation as the future,
Fate, and Death--ever veiled from the sight of men, since no man could
know the manner of his own death. In medieval legend the Caillech became
the Black Queen who ruled a western paradise in the Indies, where men
were used in Amazonian fashion for breeding purposes only, then slain.

Spaniards
called her Califia, whose territory was rich in gold, silver, and gems.
Spanish explorers later gave her name to the newly discovered paradise
on the Pacific shore of North America, which is how the state of
California came to be named after Kali. In the present century, Irish
and Scottish descendants of the Celtic "creatress" still use the word
"caillech" as a synonym for "old woman."

The Black Goddess was
known in Finland as Kalma (Kali Ma), a haunter of tombs and an eater of
the dead. The Black Goddess worshipped by the gypsies was named
Sara-Kali, "Queen Kali," and to this present day, Sara is worshipped in
the South of France at Ste-Marie-de-la-Mer during a yearly festival.

Some
gypsies appeared in 10th-century Persia as tribes of itinerant
dervishes calling themselves Kalenderees, "People of the Goddess Kali."
A common gypsy clan name is still Kaldera or Calderash, descended from
past Kali-worshippers, like the Kele-De of Ireland. European gypsies
relocated their Goddess in the ancient "Druid Grotto" underneath
Chartres Cathedral, once the interior of a sacred mount known as the
Womb of Gaul, when the area was occupied by the Carnutes, "Children of
the Goddess Car." Carnac, Kermario, Kerlescan, Kercado, Carmona in
Spain, and Chartres itself were named after this Goddess, probably a
Celtic version of Kore or Q're traceable through eastern nations to
Kauri, another name for Kali. The Druid Grotto used to be occupied by
the image of a black Goddess giving birth, similar to certain images of
Kali. Christians adopted this ancient idol and called her Virgo
Paritura, "Virgin Giving Birth." Gypsies called her Sara-Kali, "the
mother, the woman, the sister, the queen, the Phuri Dai, the source of
all Romany blood." They said the black Virgin wore the dress of a gypsy
dancer, and every gypsy should make a pilgrimage to her grotto at least
once in his life. The grotto was described as "your mother's womb." A
gypsy pilgrim was told: "Shut your eyes in front of Sara the Kali, and
you will know the source of the spring of life which flows over the
gypsy race. We find variations of Kali's name throughout the ancient
world.

The Greeks had a word Kalli, meaning "beautiful," but
applied to things that were not particularly beautiful such as the
demonic centaurs called "kallikantzari," relatives of Kali's Asvins.
Their city of Kallipolis, the modern Gallipoli, was lefted in Amazon
country formerly ruled by Artemis Kalliste. The annual birth festival
at Eleusis was Kalligeneia, translatable as "coming forth from the
Beautiful One," or "coming forth from Kali."

Lunar priests of
Sinai, formerly priestesses of the Moon-Goddess, called themselves
"kalu." Similar priestesses of prehistoric Ireland were "kelles,"
origin of the name Kelly, which meant a hierophantic clan devoted to
"the Goddess Kele." This was cognate with the Saxon Kale, or Cale,
whose lunar calendar or kalends included the spring month of Sproutkale,
when Mother Earth (Kale) put forth new shoots. In antiquity the
Phoenicians referred to the strait of Gibraltar as Calpe, because it was
considered the passage to the western paradise of the Mother.

The
Black Goddess was even carried into Christianity as a mother figure,
and one can find all over the world images of Mother Mary, the mother of
Jesus Christ, depicted as a black Madonna.

There are two stories on
the origin Kali Maa, and the one from the Durga Saptashati (a poem in
praise of Durga Maa), which is part of the Markandeya Puran is more
popular.

Long long ago there existed two powerful demons called
Shumbhu and Nishumbhu. As they grew in strength, they usurped the vast
empire of the King of Gods, Indra and dispossessed all the gods like
Surya, Chandra, Yam, Varuna, Pawan and Agni. Both of them also managed
to throw the god-host away from heaven. Sorely distressed the gods went
to the mortal realm (Earth) and began to brood on how to get rid of
these demons permanently. The solution was to pray to Durga Maa in her
form of Parvati, the wife of Shiva. They reached the Himalayas and
prayed to please the kind hearted Goddess Parvati. Agreeing to help, the
body of Mother Parvati emerged a bright light in the form of a divine
lady called Ambika. Her exit from Devi Parvati's body caused the latter
to turn dark and black. She was then known as Kaushiki who began to
dwell over the mountain ranges.

When the sycophants of the
demons, Chand and Munda saw the dazzling light in the beautiful form of
Ambika, they were enchanted by her superb beauty. They went to the
demons Shumbhu and Nishumbhu and said, "Your Lordship! This woman is the
most beautiful female in the entire Universe." They described her
beauty in such superlative terms that Shumbhu and Nishumbhu could not
resist sending their messenger Sugreeva to bring her to them.

Sugreeva
reached Ambika and extolled the virtues of his masters Shumbhu and
Nishumbhu to influence the Goddess. But she smiled indulgently and
replied: "You may be right in the assessment of your masters but I
cannot break my oath. I might have done it rather unconsciously but the
fact is that now I stand committed to my oath, which is that whosoever
can defeat me in battle and brow-beat me; whosoever can match my power,
only he shall only be my master. So go and tell your masters to show
their strength and win me in the battle."

The messenger replied:
"Listen, O Lady! You are very arrogant and adamant. Don't challenge my
masters, against whose might the universe shudders in fright. They, who
have browbeaten the gods and have thrown them out of Heaven, are very
powerful. You are a mere woman, and you cannot match their might. Follow
my advice and come with me to accept their proposal. Or else you shall
be pulled by your hair and taken to their feet."

The Goddess
replied: "Whatever you say may be true. Maybe your Shumbhu is so
powerful and your Nishumbhu is so virile but I am committed to my
pledge. But go now and explain the whole situation to the Demon-lords.
Let them come and defeat me!"

Sugreeva then went to his masters
Shumbhu and Nishumbhu and explained the whole situation at length.
Shumbhu and Nishumbhu became angry and they sent another demon
Dhoomralochan to fetch her. But a mere loud cry and wrathful gaze of the
Goddess was enough to incinerate the demon Dhoomralochan. The lion of
the Goddess slayed the accompanying demons. Then the Demon kings sent
Chanda and Munda with a large army to capture the Great Goddess. They
encircled the Himalayas to nab the Goddess. The Goddess then produced a
black figure of frightening form, called Kaali-Devi or Kaalika Devi. She
destroyed the demons easily, hacked off the heads of Chanda and Munda
and brought them to the Goddess Ambika. Since she had hacked off the
heads of Chanda Munda, she became famous as Chamunda Devi.

Hearing
the death of Chanda and Munda, the Demon Kings sent another huge army
headed by seven commanders. To match their combined strength the seven
gods: Brahma, Vishnu, Shiv, Indra, Mahavaraah, Nrisingh, Swami Kartikeya
dispatched their forces. Seeing the temerity of the demons, another
beam of power in the form of a woman emerged from the Goddess's body,
who sent Lord Shiv as her messenger to Shumbhu and Nishambhu with the
message: "If you want your welfare, return the realm of gods to gods
along with their right to perform yagyas, and you must now go down to
Paataal Lok (Nether world)". Shumbhu and Nishumbhu refused to accept the
Goddess's advice and leading a huge army of terrible demons, reached
the battlefield. Supported by the divine powers, the Goddess began to
massacre the demons. At that time the demon forces were led by a demon,
Raktabeeja. He had the power to reproduce as many demons of his form and
dimension as the drops of his blood which fell to the ground. After a
fierce battle the Goddess ordered Chamunda (Kali Maa) to spread her
mouth far and wide and swallow Raktabeeja alongwith his blood. Chamunda
did exactly that and hacked off the head of demon.

Kali Maa then
devoured the slain bodies of the asuras and danced a fierce dance to
celebrate the victory. This dance of destruction began by Kali and her
attendants continued for long and none could stop her. To stop her,
Shiva himself mingled among the asuras whom she was annihilating. Shiva
allowed himself to be trampled upon by her in this dance of victory
because this was the only remedy left to bring her to senses and to
protect the world from total annihilation. When Kali Maa saw that she
was dancing over the body of her husband, she put her tongue out of her
mouth in sorrow and surprise. She remained stunned in this posture and
this is how Kali is shown in images with the red tongue protruding from
her mouth.

Durga Maa then fought the demon Nishumbhu who was
slain in no time. Now Shumbhu decided to take on the Goddess (Durga
Maa) himself. Reaching the battlefield, he said to the Goddess: "You
take pride on others' strength. Why don't you show your own power!"

The
Goddess replied with a smile: "Fool! The whole world is just Me. All
Creation is my form in a variety of dimensions. I am the cause and
effect of everything: all things emerge from me only and ultimately'
enter me only. The whole world is in harmony with My Being."

Then
after the nine celestial powers (Kali Maa being one of them) which had
emerged from the Goddess (Durga Maa) went back into her and she single
handedly killed the demon Shumbhu.

'Kal' also translates as
Time and 'i' means the Cause; Kali, the Cause of Time or She Who is
Beyond Time, activates Consciousness to perception, allows Consciousness
to perceive. The mystery of Kali's name, which begins with the first
consonant of the Sanskrit alphabet, attached to the first vowel, is deep
indeed. From tantric tradition we learn that the whole material
universe is but an expression of certain primordial sounds or
vibrations.

These are expressed by the consonants and vowels of
the Sanskrit alphabet, combined together in different ways.
"Seed-syllables" (Bija Mantras), short combinations and "Spells"
(Dharanis), long combinations of differing measures, are the very
"fabric" from which this universe is formed. From tantric tradition we
learn that the garland of heads about Kali's neck symbolize the letters
or vibrations of the Sanskrit alphabet. We learn Kali's seed-syllables,
names and potent Mantras, the tools by which we can transform ourselves
and become one with Her.